The post war period of the 1950s was a prelude to the revolutionary social activism that erupted in the 1960s. Shocked by Hitler’s atrocities, the awakened American psyche became the architect of the Nuremberg Code and the nation was forced to gaze on its own human rights abuses. The feminist and civil rights movements that forged this new era would change forever the treatment of women and the mentally ill in this country. This story is about the courage of four women and the way their lives intertwine as they challenge social oppression, forced psychiatric treatment and the brutality of a paternalistic mental health system.
Aberdeen State Mental Hospital, Alabama, 1950 - a place where a twelve-year-old child has died in an iron cage kept in the attic room above the back ward and where patients with dark black circles around their eyes roam the remote ward on the asylum grounds. Nurses Judith and Jean frantically attempt to solve the mystery of the child’s death and the fate of patients transferred to a research unit in the hospital.
What is happening on this unit that turns these patients into the black eyes, walking automatons unable to relate their terrifying stories?
Ella Land is committed to Aberdeen State Mental Hospital by her husband, Gerald, an aspiring New York politician, who believes her psychic readings and casting of astrological charts are dabbling with the devil and destined to ruin his chances for governor of New York. Despite the courageous actions of Judith and Jean, Ella is transferred to the back ward. Time is running out as Judith attempts to reach Angela Cutoni, Ella’s long time friend, who holds the key to Ella’s release from the hospital and Gerald’s political demise.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Incarceration
"Oh, no!"
"It's all right. You're all right," Nurse Judith says, as I prop myself up on my arm, stiff sheets raking at the oozing abrasion on my elbow.
“What happened?” I ask.
"She gave you too much," she whispers as though Miss Bridges has ears that could hear through walls.
She smiles now, wiping my brow with the warm, wet cloth, heated by the love inside of her, I think. Her fingers brush my forehead with tenderness and a shot of energy enters the point of touch. I smile despite myself, feeling her vibrations course through me, making my body light as air.
"I'm going to try to get your medication reduced, Mrs. Land. I'll talk to the doctor." She reaches into her pocket, cleans the abrasion I have from the fall with an antiseptic, and places a band-aid on it.
"Who's my doctor now?" I ask weakly, trying to forget that I'm in this miserable place. How'd it happen? I didn't want to come back. I suppress a sob.
"They change so often," I say, steadying my voice.
"I know," Nurse Judith acknowledges, lowering her eyes, hiding her feelings. "They move on," she adds, lids still cloaking her large gray eyes that probe my heart, making it ache.
"You're assigned to the Medical Director here, Dr. Atwisk."
"At risk?" I squawk, voice weakened by the tonic – Tonic the Terrible, I call it.
Ireland 1944.. A young man’s body is pulled from the River Lee. He’s wearing a distinctive silver ring that belonged to Paudy Daly, the eldest son of the notorious Mixer Daly. Why?
Ireland 1947. Seven weeks of relentless snow. Guard Eamon Foley is searching for a missing child.
At Toby Appleyard’s farm, he discovers the kitchen littered with dead cats. And the skeletal remains of a woman. Upstairs, Toby is dead in his bed.
